The text of the radio dictation “The Magic of the Voice” written by Zabuzhko is published

28 October 15:19

Suspilne Kultura and Ukrainian Radio have published the text of the 2024 national unity radio dictation “The Magic of the Voice” written by writer Oksana Zabuzhko, Komersant UkrainianKomersant Ukrainian reports

Thanks to this, each participant of the event can independently check their text for errors.

The results of the radio dictation will be announced when the commission has processed all the letters received.

It should be noted that, in addition to mistakes and spelling, the listeners’ attention was drawn to the complex syntactic constructions, which, in the opinion of many, make the text difficult to understand, especially for schoolchildren and people who are not used to this style.

The text of the radio dictation:

“The Magic of the Voice”

First, there was the “liar”. It started the day: click! and the piercing murmur of the first bars of “Roaring and Groaning…”, followed by the forcedly cheerful “Kyiv is speaking!”, gave a sign that it was time to get out from under the warm blanket, even if you didn’t want to.

Children love to be heard in a group. It was nice to think that at that moment millions of children across the country were also going to school, and their mothers and fathers were going to work, and we were all united by the voice from the radio. The human voice is a magical substance, and you can fall in love with it without even seeing the carrier. “Oksana, Oksana, I hear your voice, the wind has brought it to me from Ukraine,” people still dance to this tango at weddings, not knowing that this is exiled, gulag folklore – not addressed to a beloved girl, but to the legendary singer Oksana Petrusenko, whose singing was broadcast by All-Union Radio in the Stalinist years, even in the Siberian wilderness.

And in the 1960s and 1980s, when the only permissible form of patriotism was cheering for Dynamo Kyiv, Ukraine was in love with the voices of football commentators. They were recognisable at a glance, and their modulations were like a breath of fresh air, conveying solidarity with their “own” and indignation at the privileges of Muscovites, who were shamelessly judged by referees in crucial matches. It’s amazing what a wealth of meanings the human voice can express through intonation alone!

Over time, the TV has dulled our ears to that.

But, despite all the changes in technology, for a hundred years now Ukraine has been sounding on the planet’s airwaves with its own voice. And no one will ever turn off or drown out our voice again.

Остафійчук Ярослав
Editor